


take me back to the night we met

by isacabral



Series: in another life you must have been mine [10]
Category: Pitch Perfect (Movies)
Genre: F/F, Ghost Whisperer AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-18
Updated: 2020-01-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:55:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22306051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/isacabral/pseuds/isacabral
Summary: The night Chloe first met Beca means something special to her and she would give anything to have her wife remember it.
Relationships: Chloe Beale/Beca Mitchell
Series: in another life you must have been mine [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/982203
Comments: 18
Kudos: 96





	take me back to the night we met

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dumbacapellapotatoes (Bechloetrash)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bechloetrash/gifts).



> this is a hangover cure completely unbetaed given this is a gift for my beta. feel better dude ily 🧡

Chloe was aware she was excited, way more than usual, and that she couldn’t stop shifting from side to side on her chair at The Coffee Club, grinning a little manically. Maybe the glare she received from Aubrey wasn't totally undeserving. But she couldn't help herself; she had just received rather joyful news.

“Okay, fine, share it with the room,” Aubrey sighed, eyes rolling. “What’s up?”

Chloe squealed and grabbed Aubrey’s forearm, eyes wide with excitement. “My present for Beca is finally here!”

Aubrey’s eyes were also wide, albeit maybe it had something to do with how fiercely Chloe was holding her arm.

“Uh, what’s the occasion?”

“It’s our anniversary on Friday,” Chloe replied and allowed her friend to gently pry her arm back to herself. “Five years.”

“Really?” Aubrey frowned, using her newly recovered arm to reach for her cup of coffee. “I thought you guys had only been married for two years.”

“We have,” Chloe clarified. “But this is the anniversary of when we first met.”

“You guys celebrate the night you first met?” Aubrey scoffed. “That’s disgusting.”

“But Bree, it was so romantic!”

Giving in, Aubrey asked. "How was it?"

//

_Chloe had just gotten home from her last class of the day and she was exhausted. All she wanted was to take a long, hot shower and go straight to bed. No dinner needed. Unfortunately, her late-night plan was disturbed by the sharp ringing of… the fire alarm? That didn’t sound good at all._

_Everything became a mess of controlled chaos once she stepped out of her apartment._

_Wearing only her robe and a pair of fluffy slippers, Chloe found herself being escorted out of her brownstone building by a grumpy, all-business firefighter who was manhandling her by the forearm. It didn't help her improve her crappy day at all._

_“I can walk on my own just fine, thank you,” Chloe grumbled, tugging her arm back._

_The firefighter accompanying her let it go with a smirk but kept a hovering hand on her back, which she used to not-so-gently push her past the barricade. It made Chloe lose one of her slippers._

_“You’re welcome,” the woman smiled cockily, causing Chloe to glare at her as she went back to retrieve her lost slipper._

//

“Such a charmer,” Aubrey commented sarcastically.

“She was,” Chloe was smiling but it faded away as she thought about their current predicament. “Beca has been so busy lately though, she hasn’t even mentioned our anniversary.”

“You think she forgot?” Aubrey asked gently, one hand reaching out to pat over Chloe’s lightly.

Chloe sighed, drinking the remains of her chai latte. “I really hope she didn’t.”

//

When Chloe got home, it was to find her wife sprawled over their brand-new, gray plush couch, eyes closed and groaning. Chloe's racing mind caused her heart to jump to her throat, picturing a worst case scenario.

“What happened?” she rushed to Beca’s side on the couch.

“Threw off my shoulder in training today,” Beca groaned, flopping overdramatically onto her side. “The Captain sent me home.”

Chloe sighed in relief, knowing that if it was something serious, her Captain or at least Stacie would have made Beca go to the hospital instead of sending her home. Getting up, Chloe helped Beca stand, holding her hands.

“Can you get this party upstairs while I grab you some heat packs?”

“‘Mkay,” Beca agreed. “Hi, by the way,” using their intertwined hands, Beca drew her in for a kiss, bringing a smile to Chloe’s face.

“Hi,” Chloe parroted. “Upstairs?”

“I’m going, I’m going.”

It took Chloe about ten minutes to get everything ready and by the time she got to their bedroom, Beca was once again sprawled all over her side of the bed. It would have been a cute sight if it wasn’t for the big purple splotch on her shoulder.

“You’re gonna be so sore in the morning,” Chloe frowned in sympathy, setting the heat packs on her wife’s bruised shoulder.

“I’m already sore as fuck,” Beca complained but sighed in relief when Chloe placed the packs on her. “Just hope I’m better by Friday.”

The off-hand comment caused Chloe’s ears to perk up. Maybe Beca hadn’t forgotten their anniversary after all. Not that she would. Chloe knew that.

Of course.

“Oh really?” she opted for pretending to be nonchalant though, not wanting to upset Beca with the fact she thought her wife had forgotten their special date. “What’s Friday?”

“Poker night at Stacie’s,” was Beca’s muffled reply and Chloe felt her body sagging all over again.

Beca had other plans. Plans that didn’t include a date, presents, or Chloe even.

“I didn’t know that,” Chloe’s voice was off-pitch, denouncing her hurt, and she knew that if Beca wasn’t in pain she would have noticed.

Maybe she was just wrong about a lot of things she thought about Beca.

"It's just for the squad," Beca sighed, relief apparent in her face now that Chloe had settled her with the heat packs.

Chloe hummed, equal parts annoyed and sad. Perhaps the day doesn't mean much to Beca but it meant to Chloe and she was sure her wife knew that. It was disheartening to learn that she didn't.

“Does it hurt right here?” Chloe forcefully poked Beca on her bruised shoulder, rousing an indignant noise of pain from her wife. “I’m so sorry.”

Small mercies.

//

"What's this?" Jessica, one of Chloe's assistants at Passionate Paws, asked as soon as Chloe walked into the clinic the next morning.

“Beca’s gift,” Chloe supplied, struggling a bit to carry the big box to her office.

“It’s Beca’s birthday?” Ashley, Chloe’s other assistant/receptionist, popped up out of nowhere.

She had a tendency to do that and it always scared the crap out of Chloe.

“No,” Chloe huffed, setting the box on her table and taking a deep breath. “It’s when we first met.”

“Cute,” they said in unison.

“What is it?” Ashley followed suit, eyeing the big box curiously.

Unable to hold in her excited grin, Chloe rushed over to her desktop to show them pictures of the gift. It was a standard, stainless steel mini hot dog cart with a custom red and yellow umbrella saying The Umbrella Room. She was so proud of it she didn’t even notice the matching looks of confusion on Ashley and Jessica’s faces.

“That’s… sweet,” Jessica, the kinder of the two, said hesitantly.

“And it works too!” Chloe was delighted.

“Did Beca say she _wanted_ one of these?” Ashley, blunter, inquired. “It’s so… cheesy. And Beca doesn’t really strike me as the cheesy type.”

Chloe rolled her eyes, pretending not to notice the shove Ashley received. “It means something to us.”

Or at least it meant something to Chloe. And the present had already arrived so of course she was going to give it to Beca. She just couldn’t believe her wife had really forgotten about their anniversary.

//

_Chloe ducked under the yellow tape to retrieve her lost slipper when she heard the anguished sobs of Mrs. Payne, from 3B._

_“Chloe,” the woman cried out. “My husband’s still in there!”_

_Chloe’s heart tugged painfully inside her chest. “Are you sure? Maybe he came around the corner.”_

_“No! No! He’s still in there!”_

_Chloe took a deep breath, already steeling herself up. She needed to warn the firefighters about the man inside and that wasn’t going to be an easy or a pleasant task. But Mrs. Payne relaxed a little at her resolve, which helped._

_“He’s at the bottom of the stairs,” she supplied when Chloe nodded, ducking again under the tape._

_“I’m really sorry to bother you,” she ran up to the same firefighter who manhandled her a few minutes before._

_“Excuse me, ma’am, but you’re supposed to stay behind the barricade,” the woman said, holding Chloe back by her arms so she couldn’t go further._

_“There’s a man trapped inside,” she said, looking the firefighter deep in her eyes._

_She couldn’t tell her how she knew it, she just needed her to believe her._

_“I can assure you there isn’t, ma’am, we got everybody out safely,” the woman said firmly, still holding Chloe’s arms._

_“Please, believe me,” Chloe replied just as firmly, eye contact never wavering._

_Something in her tone must have tipped the woman off that she wasn’t to be messed with, that she was willing to run inside the building herself to prove her point, because she finally let go of Chloe’s arms and started retreating, still curiously eyeing Chloe._

_“Yo, Stacie,” the woman called out, causing another firefighter to stop in her tracks. “Come on.”_

_“Where we’re going, smalls?” the woman questioned but followed suit anyway and Chloe finally started to relax._

_“Back inside,” the woman said, putting her gear back on and going back inside the building._

_“You’re welcome,” Chloe shouted weakly, once again mildly annoyed at the firefighter’s rudeness._

_They found him. They found Mr. Payne and he was still alive, which was a miracle. Chloe could cry._

_She could feel Mrs. Payne next to her, a lot calmer now that her husband had been found. “Make sure you check on him, okay? He always forgets to take his meds.”_

_“I will,” Chloe smiled sweetly at her, a little teary-eyed._

_She watched until the woman crossed over into the light, sighing deeply and dabbing at her eyes with the sleeve of her robe. So much for her relaxing night._

//

“So, has Beca remembered your anniversary yet?”

Chloe was out with Aubrey again, this time for drinks-drinks — no coffee — at Lisa’s and her question startled Chloe out of her dozed-off stare into their sangria pitcher.

“Chloe?”

“Sorry,” Chloe shook her head lightly. “And no, by the way. She’s still playing poker at Stacie’s.”

“Want me to drop a hint next time I see her?” Aubrey’s eyes softened at her answer. “Or, you know, bang her head up against a wall for being so dense? Whatever works for you.”

Chloe laughed at her best friend’s eagerness to antagonize her wife and shook her head. She was sure Aubrey was serious about both options.

“ _Neither_ is necessary,” she said with a playful glare. “I don’t wanna trick her into remembering.”

“Who said anything about a trick?”

“I’m serious, Bree,” Chloe took a sip of her drink. “I really want her to remember on her own.”

“What’s so special about the night you guys first met?” Aubrey was curious and Chloe was surprised at herself for never having told her best friend the actual story of how she met her wife.

“Well…”

//

_Chloe’s apartment was a mess. A dirty, grimmy mess. There was no way she would be able to rest with her apartment like that. So she had no choice but to go out in the light drizzle dripping outside to the Walmart a couple of blocks down and get everything she needed to make her place look — and smell — presentable again._

_She was making her way down the brownstone’s damp steps when the wind started blowing harshly around her, causing her umbrella to flake on her as she bumped into someone._

_“Sorry!”_

_“It’s okay!”_

_Giving up on fixing her umbrella, Chloe stopped to look at the person she bumped into, coming face to face with Grumpy Firefighter._

_“Remember me?” the woman asked half-heartedly, not as cocky as she had been before, but the ghost of her smirk was still there and that was enough for Chloe._

_“Yeah,” Chloe nodded. “You threw my slipper at me.”_

_“Tossed,” the woman shrugged, smirk fully out now. “There’s a difference. Need a help with that?” she gestured towards Chloe’s umbrella._

_She simply… tossed it to the woman, wordlessly._

_“There’s a trick to it,” the firefighter explained as she fumbled with it under the increasingly pouring rain. “That’s not it,” Chloe laughed when the woman also gave up, shooting the broken umbrella on the nearby trash can._

_“I hope you’re better at putting out fires than you are at fixing umbrellas,” she taunted, causing the woman to glare at her._

_“I’ll get you a new one,” she shrugged. “I’m Beca, by the way. Beca Mitchell.”_

_“Chloe Beale,” Chloe shook the hand Beca not-so-awkwardly offered._

_“Nice to meet you, Chloe. Y’know. Officially,” they both laughed. “Where you’re headed?”_

_“Well, now to get an umbrella,” Chloe smirked at the faint hint of a blush that appeared on Beca’s nose. “And cleaning products. My apartment is full of soot and residual smoke. You?”_

_“I’m starving,” was Beca’s blunt response._

_“Okay…”_

_“Can I buy you a late dinner? I know a place,” Chloe was taken aback but not thrown off about the request._

_“What place?” she had been living in this neighborhood for the past four years and she had never seen a restaurant stay open after midnight._

_“Ever heard of The Umbrella Room?”_

//

_“Welcome to The Umbrella Room.”_

_Chloe couldn’t believe she was dripping wet, sitting on a bench near a hot-dog cart past midnight with a grumpy — yet admittedly cute — firefighter after one of the longest days of her life. She could never have predicted this astonishing turn of events._

_“You’ve got class, I’ll give you that,” she said, taking a bite of her deliciously-smelling hot-dog._

_She would not give it to Beca the satisfaction of telling her how good she found it, though._

_“Anyone can take you to Le Bernardin,” Beca shrugged lazily, taking a huge bite of her hot-dog. “You won’t find this kind of food there.”_

_It was kind of adorable to see such a tiny woman gorge herself with a hot-dog the size of her face. Whether she liked it or not, Chloe was charmed._

_“One can hope,” Chloe took another bite; she was also starving. “Do you live nearby?”_

_“Near-ish. West 90th.”_

_Chloe hummed — having failed Geography in high school she could never really tell if a place was near or far — and they ate in silence for a moment before either of them broke the silence._

_“Can I ask you a question?” Beca asked._

_“Go ahead,” Chloe conceded, finishing off her hot-dog._

_“Tonight… you were pretty sure that guy was in that apartment,” and there it was, what Chloe knew would come eventually._

_Everyone she had ever encountered in her life — everyone except her grandmother — had been thrown off by her gift. It’s not like she asked for it, though; it wasn’t her fault she could talk to spirits and, therefore, was bound to help them crossover into the light. Her grandmother could as well and for as long as she lived, she helped Chloe with her gift._

_Everybody else just made her feel like a freak._

_“That’s not a question,” she said, hoping to go for a jesting tone but the subject-matter weighed on her too much to make light of the situation._

_“I’ve been thinking about it all night. You were so sure. How were you so sure?”_

_Beca’s question, however, wasn’t prickling at her spine like other people’s usually did. She didn’t sound menacing, frightened or sneering. She sounded genuinely curious, causing Chloe’s guard to drop even further down._

_“Lucky guess,” she replied with a hint of a smile._

_“Aw, c’mon! Seriously?” Beca pulled the most adorable grumpy face she had ever seen. “I hate secrets.”_

_“Guess you’re gonna have to take me on more dinner dates if you wanna find out, Miss Mitchell.”_

//

“So you guys have been disgustingly adorable from the beginning, is this what you’re telling me?”

Chloe snorted, way on her way to Drunksville. “No, Bree. It's just… It was special because Beca never made me feel like a freak or a weirdo. Never once. And that is very important to me.”

Aubrey heaved a deep sigh, in a very inebriated state herself.

“You guys are still nauseating.”

//

By the time Friday rolled around, Chloe had made her peace with the fact Beca had forgotten their night. Sort of. Not really. But she didn’t say anything to Beca — and strictly forbade Aubrey and Ashley to do it for her — and decided she was still going to give her the gift under just because reasons.

“Well, are you going to open it, or you just going to wait for your x-ray vision to kick in?” she asked when all Beca did was gawk at the thoughtfully wrapped box she put on their kitchen counter.

Beca eyed her suspiciously, moving closer to the present. “What’s the occasion?”

“JB.” Chloe shrugged. “I just saw it and thought of you.”

“Okay,” Beca still sounded suspicious but she made quick work of the wrapping paper anyway. “Hot dogs? Woah! No way!”

“It works and everything,” Chloe smiled at her wife’s child-like glee.

“Oh, my God, this is so awesome!” Beca turned to her, a giant smile on her face. “You’re a genius, I love you!”

“Love you too, babe,” Chloe leaned in for a kiss, not wanting her dejection to taint Beca’s happiness. “I don’t want you to be late for Stacie’s, you better get going.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Beca’s smile never wavered, her eyes still shining as she took in her present again. “Can you grab my jacket while I store this, please Chlo?”

“Sure.”

As Beca rambled on about how she couldn’t wait to test it out, Chloe mopely made her way to their hall closet where Beca stored her leather jacket. When she opened the door, however, a stick lazily wrapped in a yellow paper fell on her legs, stopping her right in her tracks.

It looked suspiciously like an umbrella.

“There’s a trick to it,” Beca husked out behind her and when Chloe turned around, her wife was right behind her. “Open it.”

Sobbing and unable to control the tears that started streaming down her face, Chloe opened the package to find a pristine, red umbrella. Just like the one she had lost five years ago. She looked back at Beca, who was holding up two glasses and a bottle of champagne.

“Dinner at The Umbrella Room?”

Chloe simply nodded, too emotional to properly formulate a response, and pulled Beca in for another kiss.

“I thought you forgot,” she whispered against her lips, the kiss salty because of her tears.

“Never,” Beca whispered back, smiling. “But I gotta keep you on your toes, right Mrs. Mitchell?”

Chloe rolled her eyes, shoving Beca lightly and still holding on tightly to her present.

“Happy anniversary, babe.”

**Author's Note:**

> please let me know what you think!


End file.
